


This Mess We're In

by thebrightestbird



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 17:16:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3776860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebrightestbird/pseuds/thebrightestbird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mack and Bobbi weren’t ready for what they lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Mess We're In

**Author's Note:**

> Post-2x16 (Afterlife) talk between Mack and Bobbi. Spoilers for that episode.

Without Coulson around, Mack gets to work on Lola whenever he wants. He knows this isn’t exactly the right thing to do. Just because the boss is away doesn’t mean you get to use his car.

Which is a terribly delusional way of looking at it given the circumstances, but Mack figures _screw it_ , propriety and respect and good ol’ fashion decency are right out these days. He’s just going to find some enjoyment wherever he can.

He wishes Fitz was here. They could crank up the Xbox, maybe watch some supposedly funny British comedy too, and he could learn more from Fitz about the uses of silica nanoparticles.

Mack sighs. _Damn it_. He’s already messing with someone else’s property. He might as well go for broke and inappropriately brood in Fitz’s room too. He shuts Lola’s hood and heads toward the agents’ quarters before he can talk himself out of it.

And he should have talked himself out of it because, of course, guess who he runs into?

“Mack, hey, where are you going?” Bobbi asks.

“Uhhh, um, I was just, yeah, well … ” Yeah, Mack’s got nothing. He was never cut out for this undercover spy mess. He’s about to just turn around without trying to explain himself and hope Bobbi lets it go when he notices the room from which she came. “Wait. Why were you in Hunter’s room?”

Bobbi’s eyes grow wide. “I,” she starts, managing to say it as if the pronoun was actually more than one letter, “was just checking if Hunter had kept anything involving Coulson that might be useful.”

“Like what? Coulson’s lucky ICER? Come on, Bobbi. You know the man wasn’t here for any other reason but actually kind of liking the place and people. What were you really doing in there?”

Bobbi looks to the ground, tucking her hands in her pockets. “I just wanted to, uh ... Mack, please don’t make me say it.”

Bobbi’s a friend, despite the strained situation they’re in, and Mack hasn’t forgotten how to treat friends. He says it for her. “You wanted to feel close to him.”

She looks up at him in relief and nods. “I messed up. This could have all been dealt with in such a more straightforward way.” She stops herself and looks around, remembering this is a public hallway, and pulls Mack into Hunter’s room. Once they have privacy, she continues. “I mean, Mack, think about it. I still believe in what Gonzales and the real S.H.I.E.L.D. have envisioned, but having us go in deep undercover instead of just discussing with Coulson and the others in the open …” She sighs. “Doesn’t that seem like the opposite of what we want S.H.I.E.L.D. to be? We wanted fewer secrets, more discussion, and what’s our first mission?”

“Keep our mouths shut and steal information,” Mack answers for her. He’s been brooding about the irony too.

“And look at the cost,” she says as she scans Hunter’s room; its owner is noticeably absent. “I messed up,” she says again.

Mack pulls her to him for a hug, knowing she could use the support. “ _We_ messed up,” he says.

As they hold each other, Mack lets his eyes roam. He suddenly stops on a group picture on the wall from a bowling night. It was girls vs. guys, but Fitz couldn’t bowl very much because of the troubles with his hand. He did his best though, and Mack was making strikes all night long, so the guys won (despite Skye’s best efforts; she is a mean bowler). In the picture, Fitz is smiling right at him, and Mack clenches at the memory.

Bobbi winces. “Mack, you’re squeezing a little too hard.”

“Geez, sorry.” He lets go quickly.

She turns to see what has Mack’s attention. “Oh, yeah. Bowling night. That was a lot of fun. Who knew Skye could cuss like that just over a bowling game?” She looks a little harder at the picture. “But you were pretty unstoppable that night. It was like you were trying to make someone proud.” She turns back around and raises an eyebrow.

Mack turns away. “I was just having a good game. Wasn’t anything else to it.”

“Uh-huh.” She gets closer to the picture and taps the glass. “Fitz looks so proud of you.”

“Yeah, well, we were on the same team. Of course, he’d be proud we won.”

Bobbi hums like she’s actually thinking. “So, Mack. Where were you headed again? In this wing of the agents’ quarters, where you don’t have a room? And a certain engineer who recently left the Playground does?”

Mack grunts in frustration. He can’t think of any way out. “Fine,” he finally confesses, “I was going to Fitz’s room. You happy?”

“Not until I hear why.”

“Damn it, Barbara,” Mack says with a glare. She stares at him with determination, and he suddenly realizes how tired he is. Secrets and lies got him into this. No more. “I miss him.”

He moves to stand in front of the picture with Bobbi. “Maybe we shouldn’t have let him go,” Mack says.

“What were we going to do? Lock him in his room?” Bobbi asks. “No, we at least did this one thing right. He wanted to go, and we didn’t stop him.”

“Yeah, I know. But what if something happens to him?” Mack sighs. “Maybe I should have followed him.”

Bobbi places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes. “I’m sorry, Mack.”

“For what?”

“That, after all of this, you lost a second chance at love too.”

Mack doesn’t have anything to add to that. He might have his issues with Coulson and how he ran S.H.I.E.L.D., but it was here that he and Bobbi were given a glimmer of a life they wanted with the people they wanted.

And they messed up.

Mack takes the bowling night picture down and leaves with it in front of Bobbi, allowing her one more look at the room before she turns off the lights and shuts the door.

-end-


End file.
